


Don't Grow Up, Wake Up

by Jumpyrope



Category: Persona 5
Genre: character study I guess, figure I might as well post it, idk I just wrote this a while ago randomly, shrugs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-30
Updated: 2017-08-30
Packaged: 2018-12-21 18:59:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11950608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jumpyrope/pseuds/Jumpyrope
Summary: Just a simple lil drabble about one of my favorite scenes in p5.





	Don't Grow Up, Wake Up

Akira learned his lesson that night. It felt like the right thing to do at the time. No, it absolutely WAS the right thing to do. It just went horribly horribly wrong. 

He saw a man grabbing hold of a woman. It was hard to see in the dark, but that much was obvious. She was definitely not into it, yelling and pleading with him to stop. Akira couldn't stop himself, and he wouldn't have stopped himself even if he could. It was the right thing to do. There was no way he was going to let this man do whatever he wanted with the girl. It was the right thing to do. 

Yet, it wasn't. 

Police, court, accusations, a huge coverup, and lies. So many lies. His parents shunned him, at least having the decency to ship their disappointment of a son off to someone they "trusted." And then he was to start his life as a transfer student, the transfer convict boy. Useless transfer convict boy living in a stranger's dusty old attic. 

Yes, that night Akira Kurusu learned an important lesson.   
Don't ever get involved in other people's messes. 

The first day of school, Akira had every intention of keeping that promise he made to himself. He would be cold and distant, make friends with the good students who follow the rules. Turn himself into a good boy who does whatever he's told. He might even cut his hair, since he heard it was disrespectful the way it covered his eyes slightly, even with his glasses on. Something about adults treasuring eye contact with kids to establish dominance like animals. 

It's raining, and Akira takes cover under a building's awning. He really doesn't want to be late his first day, but he also doesn't want to show up dripping wet. Then, a girl shows up. She takes cover next to him. He is momentarily stunned by her long pigtails of thick blonde hair, strikingly blue eyes, and tasteful makeup. Even her face had a nice bone structure. He senses a fire, but it is a dwindling flame. A small, dying campfire that would disperse into smoke at any moment if not poked at. Akira can't let himself be the one to rekindle that fire. He doesn't even know why he's thinking this, honestly. 

A car drives up and the driver calls out to her. He did not have nice bone structure. Akira is reminded of a brick, rectangular. The man offers him a ride too, and Akira declines. He really doesn't want to get in a car with a strange guy with a cinderblock for a head. The window slides up and it is hard to miss the forlorn look in her eyes. He realizes a moment later that he left that girl alone with him. Akira really hopes that he was family of some sort. 

Someone else comes along, also blonde, though this blonde is clearly artificial. The boy is angry, running after the car before stopping, not caring that he stood in the rain. Akira sensed such a power in him, like the moment he passed the hair stood up on Akira's neck, a sharp electricity stinging the air around them. The boy was wearing the same uniform pants as him, but they were somewhat ill fitting, and his entire outfit gave off the impression that he doesn't give a shit. Akira thinks that this is exactly the type of boy he should avoid. 

"Dammit... screw that pervy teacher." The boy muttered to himself, staring down that car as it drove away. 

"Pervy teacher?" Akira repeated, heart sinking a little. He wasn't family, and now that girl was with him. Akira stares at the boy in front of him until he turns around. 

"What do you want?" The boy sounds pissed, almost threatening. Akira remains stoic. "You plannin' on rattin' me out to Kamoshida?" 

Akira blinks, tilting his head in confusion. 

"What do you mean?" He says, and a further confusing conversation ensues until the boy figures out that Akira is a transfer student and didn't know anything about the school. At least Akira knows the name of the guy that drove off now. 

The boy turns around and heads to school, wording it like they should go together, but they didn't talk the entire way. They take a shortcut through an alleyway and alarm bells start going off in Akira's head, but he follows anyway. He wanted to get to school on time, after all, and he didn't know where it was exactly. 

Akira startles as it feels like a puddle he stepped in held onto his foot, like it was sticky. The boy ahead of him is equally startled by something else. The school was a castle, and Akira momentarily thought that this was just what the school looked like, but the sky seemed wrong, and the air felt wrong, and even his body felt a little wrong. 

Attacked by knights, imprisoned, sentenced to death. Kamoshida in nothing but a cape. Akira could do without these things happening in his life. Especially that last one. Yikes. 

It all seemed to happen so fast. The boy, as Kamoshida called him Sakamoto, fought back, actually knocking a guard to the ground. But then another one punches him in the gut, and Akira has a terrified moment where he thinks Sakamoto was stabbed. But no, it was the hilt of the sword that hit him. Akira grabs onto the knight, to no avail. 

"Just go! Get outa here...! These guys are serious!" Sakamoto yells from the floor, and Akira's eyes widen. He didn't even know his name, and he was telling Akira to leave him behind to save himself. There was a strange tug at his heart. 

"Oh? Running away, are we? What a heartless friend you are." Kamoshida sneers. Akira hadn't really thought about leaving for a second. 

"He ain't a friend..." the boy responds, and Akira looks at him in surprise. For some reason, that made him feel good. This guy was sacrificing himself, and he didn't even consider Akira a friend. There was no way he was running and leaving him behind now. 

In fact, Akira wasn't moving at all, even if he wanted to, it seemed as if he was frozen in place. Kamoshida started beating the shit out of Sakamoto, letting him fall to the ground. He spits on him, kicks him, and orders his execution. 

"Have you lost your mind?!" Akira felt the words fly from his mouth before he thought about them. Kamoshida only pays him a moment's attention before going back to kill the only other normal human in the room. Akira rushes forward but is pushed back into the wall. There's nothing he can do... 

_"This is truly an unjust game..."_ Those words...!  
 _"Your chances of winning are almost none."_ They sounded so soft. A butterfly with beautiful sparkling white wings flutters past him while the rest of the world seems to stop.   
_"But if my voice is reaching you, there may yet be a possibility open to you."_ The butterfly flitters away, and a new voice speaks out. 

**"What's the matter? Are you simply going to watch?"** This voice isn't gentle, it cuts through Akira's mind and clenches around his heart.   
**"Are you forsaking him to save yourself?"** Akira looks for the source, the world still seeming to be paused.   
**"Death awaits him if you do nothing."** Akira knows this already, but what is he supposed to do?   
**"Was your previous decision a mistake then?"** The man, the girl, the court ruling, the probation. His decision to follow and do what he's told. Yes, there was a mistake. His mistake was submitting. 

"It wasn't!" Akira grits his teeth, the words seeming to start the scene again. The boy is being dragged up the wall by the front of his shirt, the guard holding him and pointing his sword at him. 

Pain rakes through Akira's body, like white hot fire became his blood. He throws himself around, as if to escape the grasp of this pain. 

**"Very well... I have heeded your resolve."** Unimaginable pain takes over his mind, like it was being clawed out of his skull.   
**"Vow to me."** And Akira screams.   
**"I am thou, thou art I..."** He struggles, daggers shooting through him and invisible hands grabbing him and something taking him over.   
**"Thou who art willing to perform all sacrilegious acts for thine own justice!"** Akira can hardly breathe.   
**"Call upon my name, and release thy rage!"** It hurts.   
**"Show the strength of thy will to ascertain all on thine own, though thou be chained to hell itself!"** The pain stops. Strength, power.   
Hatred. 

"Execute him!" That voice. Kamoshida. Shut up. 

"I will stop you." The words seem to be not his own, yet so dazzlingly his that he feels the strength flow from them. Kamoshida turns around. 

"What was that?" Sakamoto is released and all the attention is turned on Akira. _Good. Look at me. Watch me._ "You desire to be killed that much? Fine!" The shield that comes from the side knocks his glasses to the floor. Akira stumbles. 

He finds himself held to the wall by spears against his neck. A sword aimed at his face. He opens his eyes, surprised by the feeling that shoots out from himself. It knocks the guards back. There is something on his face. A mask...? Akira panics, trying to take it off. What was this? Why is it here? He doesn't want to hide anymore. Take it off! 

He feels the skin rip away from his face along with the mask. Much better. 

He feels consumed by fire, but it doesn't burn him, it burns through him, a part of him. He can't hold back his grin. He feels his power, uses it, knocks back the enemy. Everyone, even the boy, looks scared of him. They should be. They all should be. 

This was his first meeting with Arsene. And it was beyond glorious.


End file.
